It looks like we may be in a bear market. The Dow Jones 30 Industrial Index is down by 7 percent from its record high. The corresponding decline in the S&P 500 Index is 8 percent and for the NASDAQ Composite Index it is already a 11 percent loss (in late December this was a 24 percent loss). The NASDAQ is by far the most “representative” of the 3 major indices because it contains 95 percent of all publicly traded companies in the USA. An even more ominous sign is the rise of the acceptance of the concept of “socialism” in the USA. Dangerous proposals for massive increases in taxation (which is already sky high) and the implementation of a so-called “wealth tax” on one’s net worth foretell the event of an eventual “debt jubilee” or the write down of financial assets and liquid wealth (i.e. US Dollar denominated bank accounts, retirement savings, pension plans, life insurance contracts and the like) – an eventual global currency reset or “global economic reset” which will bring the US Dollar back down to earth. The leader of the future is clearly China and the continent of Asia – not America or Europe.
New auto sales in the USA reached 17,334,481 new units in 2018. The Volkswagen Group had a record year worldwide, in China and in the USA (the 2 largest national global auto markets, respectively). The VW Group is the largest and best capitalized vehicle group on earth. Their record performance in the US market is due to their large number of brands which now include Volkswagen (the mass market brand from Germany), Audi (a luxury brand from Germany), Porsche (a luxury and a sports car brand from Germany), Navistar (a commercial truck brand based in Illinois), Scania (a commercial truck brand based in Sweden), Ducati (a motorcycle brand from Italy), Bentley (a very exclusive luxury brand from England), Lamborghini (a very exclusive sports car brand from Italy) and Bugatti (the most expensive production car brand in the world originally from Italy but now based in the Alemmanic Alsace region of France). The total number of unit sales for all of these brands in the US market in 2018 reached a record 896,755 – 36 percent more than in 2017. The cumulative unit total for the Volkswagen Group in the US market since 1948 (71 years ago) is now up to 20,906,016 motor vehicles.
A number of my recent monthly updates have touched upon the subject of the massive changes coming to the global automotive industry, notably the big move from the internal combustion engine to electric motors – from carbon fuels to something which will hopefully have much less of a negative impact on the environment. The Volkswagen Group is now leading the entire global industry (all automotive groups are part of this massive effort which is being driven by legislation in almost all countries in the world) in a record USD $300 BILLION investment to reach this goal. Sales of electric vehicles continue to grow by large factors – up to 7.5 fold over the same month one year ago. If these huge rates of increase continue, electric vehicles will have all of the new global vehicle market as soon as the end of 2020 – next year.
